Thursday, September 14, 2017

Keep Your Internet Safe with the CUJO Smart Firewall from Best Buy {Review}

CUJO logo
The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

A few decades ago, the phrase home security would likely have conjured up images of cameras and motion detectors and signs indicating that an alarm would silently ring if a window was forced open.

These days, there's no question that we're all still careful to lock the doors to our houses. However, home security means so much more now that there are virtual entrances to our lives that also need to be protected. After all, the plethora of connected devices in our homes — TVs, game consoles, phones, computers, tablets, printers, cameras, baby monitors, thermostats, vacuums, and much more — are really only as secure as the networks that they access, right?

Therefore, until our tech gadgets begin to be created with built-in security, it is up to us to provide it — to not only block malicious sites, viruses, and hacks, but to give peace of mind that you and your family are safe online.

That's where CUJO comes in!

CUJO firewall

A firewall for the connected home that is designed to bring business-level security to a home network, CUJO is the one device needed to secure any and all technology that connects through your internet. Just plug it in, set it up, and this simple yet sophisticated gadget monitors the activity on all of your connected devices for anything unusual. When that occurs, it immediately blocks the threats before they have a chance to compromise your online safety or private information.

Pretty great, right?

As I don't consider myself a technology expert, I was looking forward to seeing just how user-friendly CUJO would be and if I would be able to get it up and running all on my own.

CUJO review

Right out of the box and it was clear that CUJO is just about as close to "plug and play" as possible. All that I needed to do was take the device, the power cord, and the Ethernet cable, plug it all in (to a power source as well as to my router), and I was good to go.

CUJO firewall review

Registering my CUJO and going through the setup process couldn't have been much easier, as I simply downloaded the app (available from the App Store as well as Google Play) and followed the instructions one by one.

In less than 10 minutes, our home was protected and CUJO was already at work identifying our devices.

CUJO setup

From that day forward, CUJO has been amazing for keeping all of our technology safe and secure. I love the way that it was designed to automatically block any threats it detects (users then have the option to leave the block or to unblock), as this proactive method ensures that I won't have to deal with problems after they occur. I've spent too many hours stressing over computer viruses to ever want to go down that path again!

Instead CUJO keeps our entire network and every single device we own protected and it lets me know in two different ways. The unit itself has "eyes" (that my kids adore) that indicate if the device is in standby mode (full eyes), protection mode (smiling eyes) or that it has detected unwanted activity (sad eyes).

At the same time, I can receive immediate notifications on my phone and/or simply open the app to stay informed. I was amazed when CUJO detected and blocked a threat within the first 24 hours of installation — and it had at least half a dozen more within the first week of use! Where has this been all my life?!

CUJO app

Beyond just being a watchdog for all of our connected devices (which I love), CUJO takes things one step further for parents by including an abundance of parental control features. We all know that kids of every age seem to want to spend every waking minute online, but we also know that there is a great deal of the internet that isn't appropriate for children.

Therefore, being able to have control over access to the internet provides me the perfect solution, as I'm not going to keep my kids off of it entirely. CUJO allows me to not only have an internet filter, but I can set time limits and pause the internet for specific devices, monitor social media sites, receive alerts and reports, and more.

How great is it that CUJO allows me to safeguard my children and what they access online all while it protects our household overall!

CUJO parental controls

I have to admit that prior to the arrival of CUJO, I hadn't put a great deal of thought into our household's internet security. But now that it is here, I couldn't be happier knowing that my entire home, all of our devices, and even my kids are safer!

CUJO is available in three different options ($99 for the device with an $8.99 monthly service fee; $158 for the device with a $59 annual service fee; $249 for the device and a free lifetime subscription/service) and can truly provide the peace of mind you need or didn't know you need in your home.

Find out much more about all that CUJO can do and how much money you can save on it when you purchase from Best Buy today.

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